Bali - Day 1

We (especially my mum), have been wanting to visit Bali for years, but never did. This year we decided that by hook or by crook, we'd do it.  So when we found out about Ubud Writer's Fest, we decided to coincide our vacation with the fest.

After scouring the net for a hotel at a reasonable price, we decided on Ani's Villas, because they are located very near Rumah Baca, where most of the children's workshops were held. My parents put up at Sri Ratih Cottages  , which was more expensive, but lovelier and more suitable for the elderly.

Across Ani's Villa is a very large temple. (Photo above.) The sun here rises earlier than in Malaysia, and on the first morning there, I was woken early, (5:30am!) by sounds of gamelan music coming from the temple. I didn't mind it at all, afterall, I was there to experience the culture. While hubby and the children continued sleeping, I sat and watched the preparation and all the early morning bustle happening at the temple.

When the rest of the brood got up, we booked a driver for the day and did a day tour of some touristy spots. Taxi there is cheap, ranging from 200,000 to 450,000 per day. By the way, most drivers/men here will introduce themselves to you as wayan, made, putu or ketut depending on their position in the family. So when you get their name card, it's wise to note their given name. Saying from experience because by the second day, I had a stack of taxi cards mostly with the name Wayan, and I made several phone calls before I found the Wayan I was looking for!

Some pictures from our first day.

1) Tirta Empul Temple (Holy Water Spring). Very huge temple grounds. While we were there, they were preparing for a major festival. The temple was a hive of activity with devotees preparing all sorts of offerings from weaving baskets and decoration to preparing food.

Devotees bathing to purify themselves

Preparing offerings for a major prayer celebration. Lots of weaving going on.

Shaping swans out of dough, which is then deep fried and used as offering.

Offering baskets consisting of fruits, herbs and deep fried dough.

2) Kintamani Batur Lake and Volcano (Stunning scenery!) My husband, brother and nephews did a cycling tour here. They cycled 40km, mostly downhill, with stops in between to look at padi fields and farms.

3) Terraced Rice Fields. To me, this is a must see. Just so beautiful. You can take a walking tour through the rice fields and make friends with locals. Balinese are extremely friendly and hospitable people.

Canang Sari. Offerings of flowers, made daily for their gods.

 4) A Coffee and Cocoa Farm. There are many farms there, we went to two. We learnt lots about herbs, coffee and cocoa.

Smelling dried herbs.

I really loved the Lemon Grass Tea!! Oh so refreshing!

Our local guide showing us the difference between regular coffee beans and Kopi Luwak (coffee from the poop of civets.) They claim that they no longer keep civets in cages to produce coffee, but look for droppings of wild civets. Hmm...

Kids got a go at frying coffee beans, pounding, sieving etc.

 5) Mas Village. Amazing amazing works of art found here. All hand crafted!

This guy learnt the art of wood carving at the age of 10. He's been carving ever since. He said that the art of wood carving is best learnt young, and knowledge is passed down within the family.

6) After a whole day of activity, we booked dinner at Lotus Cafe and while having dinner, we watched a lovely performance of Ramayana ballet, complete with gamelan music.

To be continued...

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

.

Science Fair 2014

Recently our science co-op teamed up with another group to organize a science fair. The science fair was a success, overwhelming crowd. :)

Prior to the science fair, our little science group had spent about a year studying forensic science and wanted to end it with a science fair so the children could showcase what they'd learnt. But since we're such a small group, it was lovely to collaborate with Florence's dynamic co-op group, and that's how the science fair came to be.

Our Forensic Science group of children created this lovely poster.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Although we had several months to prepare for the science fair, procrastinator me, started working with the children rather last minute...something which I vow  think I'll never do again.

Both Jo and Nel decided they wanted to do different topics. Actually they had no choice. Out of our group of 10 children, in the end only 6 participated in the fair, which meant that each carried the responsibility of presenting one aspect of forensic science.

Jo chose to research Blood Spatter Patterns, and Nel chose to study "The Effects of different solvents on Paper Chromatography."

Jo's Project
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Science Fair day came, and it was hectic! Thankfully we had set up some of the stuff a night before. During the fair,

I had to help Jo who had too many things going on at her booth, namely:-

                  -a poster on her project (Blood Spatter Pattern),

                  - an experiment on identifying blood type, 

                  -and making gory slime (though most people stayed away from gory and chose happy                          colours.) 

Above is Jo's display board. She typed, designed and organized most of it herself. Well, she learnt the definition of hypothesis, objective, variables, how to run procedures, analysis and how to create graphs. I'm not sure if she still remembers it all now, but I'm sure it's somewhere in her memory. :) What a task for a 9 year old but she did it mostly with zest and zeal.
During her project she learnt stuff such as viscosity, velocity, diameters and circumference, point of impact, angles, analysis of droplets, etc.

The above board was a product of multiple experiments conducted by Jo which resulted in her messing up close to half the entire house with her very messy blood spatter experiments.

Like a true detective, somedays she took her experiment outdoors. Phew for this mummy, and hooray for the ants that get a taste of her syrupy-homemade-fake-blood.

Designing her poster

Apart from blood spatter, Jo spent lots of time creating slime in the kitchen. We made them gory, and they looked like intestines, red-gory liver, oozing blood. She was so ready to sell those. But at the science fair, I think, all but one of her customers, chose to make pretty pink, yellow and green slime. Her booth was popular, and there was a half hour queue for participants wanting to make slime. I had no choice but to help her. Back breaking! 

Jo's Slime booth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Nel's Project

Because I had to help Jo, Nel had to handle her booth alone, and she did it well.

               Her booth consisted of :

              -her project display on Paper Chromatography, 

             -a chromatography experiment (analysis of ink content to find pen used on murder scene)

            - and a chromatography art activity (butterfly/dragonfly with patterns from chromatography)

Above is Nel's display booth. And like Jo, she had to type and arrange it all herself. Being mostly a dreamer and one who tends to work more slowly, this was hard work for her. There were all sorts of things she had to learn, from the definition of polarity in chemistry, to discovering solvents, mixing different percentages of alcohol with water to see how it affects chromatography, to discovering molecules and etc etc.  A lot of times we had to read articles and discover stuff together.

Yes, we could've just done the experiment in a basic way and get on with it. But I believe it's more worth it when we discover the Why's and How's behind the experiment. Some information was way beyond her level, and we might revisit this topic again in the future.

 When I asked Nel what she learnt most from this project, she replied "To start way ahead of time...to be more careful when observing, to be more careful when organizing materials and information."

I think that itself made the science project worthwhile. It's not just the facts, but life lessons that come with it. The experiment requires lots of waiting time,..... but at times, she wondered off reading a book, or feeding the strays in the back alley, leaving her experiment far too long. This ruined quite a bit of her experiment, which she had to redo.

When it came to analysis, she found that if she had only organized her tonnes of paper properly, it would have been easier to find information. She spent lots of time calculating Rf factor, comparing results of her experiment.

At one point a visitor spilled some water and ruined part of her experiment which she then had to redo for the third time. Not fun at all. :( She ended up working till 3am for 2 days, and was close to a massive melt down. Lesson learnt...always keep your stuff in a safe place.

During the fair, this child of mine was nervous. She is an introvert, uncomfortable among new people and large crowds. She had to choice but to mend her booth alone, and I'm proud that, hey she did it! and did it well too. :)

 Nel's first visitor, trying out her chromatography art. The three glasses on her left are for a chromatography experiment where visitors analyze three different pens to determine the pen used at the crime scene which our co op set up.

Her booth was popular, and I think she had more than she could handle but handled it well. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lesson I learnt....in the future, for the sanity of parent, have both girls work on similar or related projects to avoid stress and going bonkers, and to save cost.

Lesson learnt by Nel -Work ahead, wayyyy ahead to avoid staying up to 3am several days in a row just before the date of exhibition.  Be careful, and guard experiment results and materials carefully to avoid the stress of redoing the same experiments multiple times! Be patient and observe experiment carefully to avoid spoilt results.

Lesson learnt by Jo - Avoid doing messy experiments in mum's kitchen because it means massive clean up and a roaring mum. Do not be too ambitious, and focus. Observation is very very important otherwise it means inaccurate results which result in redoing.

A note she placed on her poster board. Note...she added "thank goodness my mum's not a neat freak." haha...

Focusing on projects is a great way of learning for us. Although they were science projects, girls had to write/type their projects out. I made sure to check grammar and discuss with them.
Science of course, involves lots of maths. There was also lots of research and reading of related materials. Time management, sourcing for information, comparing, analyzing, reasoning, etc etc. An invaluable experience.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally...although I brought my camera, I didn't get many pictures, and I regret not having time to visit the other booths because we were so busy at our booth. A few random shots i managed to take:

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

Learning Gamelan

Girls signed up for a semester of Gamelan. Together with their friends, they formed an ensemble under the guidance of Lorna Henderson. They wanted to continue in 2015, but unfortunately the committee at the learning center decided to hire a new gamelan teacher, and so the group disbanded.

It was a lovely experience, and we hope to do this again in the near future. If not gamelan, perhaps Chinese orchestra.

Poster which Jo did for their final performance

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

.

Camping Pasir Panjang, Segari- Setiawan

A short post on our recent camping trip. Sometimes it is nice to travel without a camera, to enjoy and experience the days, totally involved, instead of looking through the lens.
And that's what I did. Thank you JaneDfor these photos.

Except for a few people fishing, Pasir Panjang was rather quiet when we were there, perhaps because of the fasting month.  We camped in the forest reserve area where there are public toilets (which were locked!). The beach, I read, stretches on for about 8 km, not very ideal for swimming though because of the very strong waves and the gradient of the seabed.

For the children, as long as there was the beach, water and good friends, the camping was an awesome time for them.

Lots of crabs there. We trapped these with some left over fish. Then we released them back to the ocean.

Jo found this lovely creature. Googled and found out it is a Bristleworm.  It swims really fluidly and is a beauty to look at. Caution...remember not to simply touch marine life, many can be really poisonous!

For dinner at our campsite, a friend got bamboo from the lemang seller. We stuffed these with marinated fish. Some of the kids and mums helped in cleaning, cutting and marinating the fish.

The kids stayed up late, lighting some fireworks, watching the crazy activity of crabs running up and down the beach, and stargazing. Some preferred feeding the fire, watching the flames dance and turn colours.
After everyone had turned in, my husband and I, and another friend took turns guarding the campsite as we noticed some seedy fellows lurking around during the day. Always wise to take turns playing sentry especially when camping in an isolated place that is yet, near the town.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Apart from camping......

Day 2, we went Kompyang hunting. When in Setiawan, must try Kompiang. This particular shop had more modern equipment, and really delicious Kompyang. When we got there (8am!!!), they were sold out, and only gave us 5 pieces. So, always prebook a few days in advance, especially if visiting during public holidays.

Kompiang still baked traditionally in an urn fueled by charcoal.

We also managed a visit to a mee suah factory. Was really interesting watching the process, and these village people were generous in sharing their information of how meesuah is made.

These hardworking people wake up at 2am to begin kneading dough. Once done, they begin pulling the dough using a homemade gadget (picture below.) Once strands are formed, they're hung in a dark area to let the dough gradually droop and lengthen.

Where the first dough is stretched.

Once the dough has drooped to desired length, it is taken outdoors, where the end of the stick is inserted into a hole, and the dough is gradually pulled through a swinging, pulling action. With that, the dough is stretched and seprated into thin strands. After several hours, the stretched dough is pulled/swung again for a second stretching. I've a video of that, but have decided not to put that up to protect privacy of maker. According to the person who made it, it takes about one and a half years to really master the art of pulling and stretching the dough.

We then went hunting for good food. This place was recommended for it's Hockchew red wine meesua and kondo mee, which is really different from the one you find in KL.  Another really great place to eat Hockchew food though is Happy Restaurant.Go early or call to reserve! When we got there, only through negotiation, they allowed us to have the last table. Food was oh so good!!!

Other places in Setiawan which we've visited so far include- The museum by the church about the first Christian settlers in Setiawan. Turtle Sanctuary. Chilli Sauce factory at Kampung Koh. Malayan Flourmill (special permission needed.) Cottage industries.  Prawn hatchery by the ocean.

So...although a tiny town, I think Setiawan is quite worth the visit!

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

.

Random Public project

 The kids and I decided on a random public project. Together with some friends, they created lots of bookmarks with encouraging words such as "Your life is precious", "You are worth it!", "Life is beautiful." etc.

Then together with a few friends, we set out to give these bookmarks to random strangers in a mall. We never expected the reactions we received from public. A lot of people waved their hands in rejection when they saw children approaching them. Some, especially people who were well dressed, more dramatically as if the girls had disease.  One even took a bookmark, laughed at the children and returned the bookmark.

This really discouraged some of the children, and even made them very afraid.

They didn't know why people reacted so negatively when all they wanted to do was to give a bookmark.

In the end, the ones who accepted our bookmarks were people who worked as cleaners, waitresses, people behind counters. One waitress accepted the bookmark and said very excitedly...
"For me...you mean for me?????" And she smiled, so big, so wide, and began showing off her bookmark to her workers. Oh, that smile was so precious to us.

A cleaner lady accepted the bookmark, smiled a quiet smile, and said "Thank you so much, this is very special" and kept it in her pocket, taking it out from time to time to look at it.

A lady sitting on the stairs alone, smoking, rejected their bookmarks at first, then suddenly said, "For free? I'll take it." We walked away, and from a distance watched her reading the same bookmark over and over again as she sat there alone, smoking her cigarette. We only hope that bookmark brought her some encouragement.

We realised that day, how cynical and afraid people have become, perhaps because of the high crime rate in our society. Well, we hope little projects like this will make a difference in society. At the same time, my children have learnt to be a little braver, even in accepting rejection.

In the end joy and smiles of the few people who accepted their bookmarks made it all worth it.

If you happened to read this post, why not do a similar project, make a difference! :)

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014
.

The Witches and Ballet

Early this year, Jo auditioned for the part of Bruno in the Witches (By Bubblegum Project) and got it! It was about 3 and a half months of intensive rehearsals, during which she had to work very hard on voice projection, diction, memorization of script, actions etc. I never thought she'd make it, considering her playful personality, but hey she did it!! The Witches showed for one week, (20/5-23/5)10 shows, back to back, and daily she had to be up by 6am. It was a struggle, but I think my little gal did well! She received great reviews, and some people came up to her and told her that she was their favourite character! She even got paid. Out of the pay she received, believe it or not, she gave some to me for driving her up and down! :)

As for Nel, she was involved in her ballet school concert, which also meant weekend rehearsals. My not so little gal anymore did well! The teacher says she's come a long way. Nel is an introvert, and when she started, she wouldn't even look the teacher in the eye at all. She still finds it difficult but is improving. She's been involved in the church dance production and ballet school concerts. The fact that she's able to dance on stage and smile is great victory for her.

I'm proud of both my girls. Little steps mean big celebration for us. :)
@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

.